Since taking Cory’s course on increasing social media following, I have been relentless in using social media as a selling tool.
One of the things I took to heart from the social media course was that we need to act as if we are speaking with people in person. That means we are not always talking about ourselves, our art, or our process. In a social setting, we have interactive conversations. So how does that translate to writing posts and engaging with people on social media?
If a person is interested in a piece of your work, ask them why? Ask them what about it is stimulating to them? As they answer, the dialog moves from the art to a deeper conversation. Quite often these conversations move from the original post to messenger where we have a much deeper interaction. It is through these interactions that the collector gets to know me and I get to know them. It’s that connection that helps solidify their decision making process.
When my friends describe me, they say I am energetic and have a good sense of humor. So, how can I convey that on social media. When create a post I write as if I were describing the image to my best friend. I laugh at myself. I often find funny things to share. I use a lot of “OMG” and “I’m so excited” language in my posts because that is how I am in face to face conversations.
Determine how much of yourself you want to reveal in your posts. People truly do want to get to know you. What aspects of yourself are you willing to share? Because the message of my art and jewelry is of healing and of finding your better self, I reveal little glimpses into my own personal journey. I’m not comfortable telling the entire story, but I share enough to form a connection. I start a tiny conversation and I am honored to receive messages from people about their own journeys. They tell me their stories and I listen as if we were talking over coffee.
I’m busy and don’t have time to read long posts, so I keep my posts short and sweet because I assume my collectors feel the same way. Each post only conveys only one thought. When I post WIP’s, it’s with enthusiasm about where the piece is going. When I post images of me shipping something to a lucky collector, it’s with gratitude.
Some other ideas include:
- Post teasers which would include segments of an image and ask your audience where they think you are going with the piece.
- Post a progress WIP collage and talk about how the piece changes over time ask for comments about that process
- A finished piece but talk about the emotions behind the piece
- A messed up piece and talk about how you handle mistakes
- If your process is interesting and unique, show segments. People love to see how things are made.
- Post little videos of you working. Again, people love to see this.
- Rather than posting straight on shots of your work, provide a studio shot with just a glimpse of your new piece. I can’t tell you how many times, people have zoomed in on a piece and inquired (and bought) it from those kinds of shots.
Currently Facebook loves groups. This is the place where you can go meet people. Join groups where you and the members have similar interests. This is the virtual version of clubs. This is where you’ll meet people and be able to slowly introduce what it is that you do. From there, it’s a matter of networking.
The second way to use groups is to create a group that acts as a virtual co-op gallery. This is the virtual version of a brick and mortal co-op gallery. In the brick and mortar version, several artists get together, rent a space, hang their art, work a shift, and sell their work. A social media group can be created in such a fashion that it acts the same way. There are several of these types of groups on Facebook and they have been very successful. Some of these groups accept applications for new artists. Some invite guest artists to show. Some host monthly themed events, some host weekly events, and some host fundraising events.
The more you post and keep showing your work, the more visibility you will get. The more you share in groups, the more visibility you will get. The more you find your “signature”, the more your work will be recognized. It takes time, and perseverance, but can be worth it in the end. As Cory says, “You need to get your work in front of as many eyes as possible.”
Here are some of my posts that resulted in sales fairly quickly. This first one blew me away. This single post resulted in 4 sales within a 24 hour period.
I play around with posting just to Instagram and seeing what will happen. With this post, I had painted to relieve some stress and was so excited with the piece. I just posted it to IG with a blurry photo an all. It was dark here and I wasn’t really thinking about selling it. I have my IG set to share to my FB business page as well. Within 5-10 minutes, I had two PM’s on Facebook asking for the piece. Both people saw it on IG and responded immediately. I sometimes do this for fun usually with studies. I later edited my text to say SOLD to stop the inquiries.
With this post, I also posted to both IG and FB. This was a WIP teasing kind of post. People started getting excited about what was coming.
Within a week (it took me that long to finish them) I posted this collage. Between the two posts, a completely new person found me on IG. I have no idea how. Each person ended up buying a piece from this series. And, I had a long conversation with several people about this series. From this single post four of the five pieces sold.
Find your people, engage with them, ask them questions, get them excited because you’re excited. Really take Cory’s message of social media being an on-line party to heart and act on there as you would in real life. It comes through and people respond.
Marianne Goodell discovered the healing qualities of symbolism in art through her own depression. She was drawn to symbols and how they could be used as reminders to deeper self understanding.
She divides her time equally between figurative painting and creating enamel and silver jewelry. Images in her jewelry become paintings and vice versa. In either case, both have elements of healing and are highly symbolic. Invoking healing and growth is one of her main focuses with the intention of inspiring growth and healing.
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